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Meta plans to slash the amount of water its data centers are using by implementing a system where sites will operate at higher temperatures but lower humidity.

Facebook's parent company said it has been trialing running some sites at 90 degrees Fahrenheit, around 5 degrees above their usual temperatures, as part of wider plans to become "water positive" by 2030. 

Meta also told audiences at the recent 7×24 Exchange Fall Conference in San Antonio, Texas, that it also plans to lower the frequency of the backwashing used to clean filtration systems, in addition to tweaking the water softening systems being utilized at many of its data centers.

How will this work?

Meta's pilot programs involved adjusting the temperature environment in just one half of a data center while maintaining the other side at the existing level for comparison.

Meta didn’t clearly specify exactly how much water it intends to save annually from the measures, saying only “millions of gallons”, according to reports

On a per-site basis, Meta estimated the savings will range from 10% to 65% depending on the area.

Why the move?

Data centers are a huge drain on the world’s finite water supply, as according to a report by the US Department of Energy, these used a combined 174 billion gallons of water in 2020 in just the US alone.

Meta is quite the water consumer itself, the big tech firm used 2.57 million cubic meters of water over the course of 2021 mainly as a result of its cloud hosting which is responsible for huge swathes of consumer data, according to statistics from GlobalData.

Even a small decrease in water output per data center could cause huge positive ripples globally, Meta currently operates around 40 million square feet of data centers globally as per its website.

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Meta isn’t the only big tech firm that is looking to make its data centers more sustainable.

Microsoft says it has created zero-carbon emissions alternatives for the diesel-powered generators used for backups in its data centers, in the event of power outages and other service disruptions.

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Via The Register

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Latest Tech News

Bluesound is a brand that aims to go head to head with Sonos, and generally does so with great success. Much like that company, Bluesound’s product lineup consists of a range of wireless speakers, soundbars, and subwoofers, along with amplifiers that can be used to bring wireless streaming to any old speakers. 

The latest wireless speaker to arrive from Bluesound is the Pulse M ($449 / £449 / €549 / around AU$700), which at first glance looks like a somewhat beefier Sonos One. Similar to that model, the Pulse M is a compact standalone speaker with high-res streaming capability that can be paired wirelessly with a second Pulse M for stereo listening, It can also be mated with a wireless subwoofer for extended bass, or used as a surround speaker in a full 5.1 system with one of the company’s soundbars.

Specs-wise, the Pulse M appears to have more going on than the Sonos One, which currently sits at the top of our list of the best wireless speakers. Aside from being slightly larger at 6.7 x 8 x 5.9 inches (W x H x D), Bluesound’s somewhat cylindrical new speaker has a more intricate “Omni-Hybrid” design that mates a 5.25-inch woofer with a pair of 0.75-inch tweeters that are offset from each other at a 45-degree angle.

The Pulse M’s design also incorporates an acoustic reflector that serves to radiate high-frequency sound in a 360-degree pattern. The aim here is to deliver a wide, immersive presentation from a single speaker, with an 80-watt DSP “smart” amplifier working to monitor performance in real time to enhance dynamic range and reduce distortion.

Beyond all that, the Pulse M, which is available in a satin white or black finish with a matching fabric grille, is controlled by the company’s excellent BluOS app and can stream music from a wide range of services via Wi-Fi, Ethernet, or AirPlay 2. MQA decoding is onboard to handle high-res audio from Tidal, and there’s also two-way aptX HD Bluetooth support.

Hardwired inputs are extensive for a compact wireless speaker: along with Ethernet USB type-A ports, the Pulse M has a combination optical digital and analog audio input, and there’s also a 3.5mm output for connecting wired headphones to luxuriate in high-res audio goodness.

A pair of Bluesound Pulse M speakers used as wireless surrounds in a 5.1 home theater system. (Image credit: Bluesound)

Analysis: More than One 

With its innovative 360 degree sound-spreading design, the Pulse M seems perhaps less interested in taking on the Sonos One than the Sonos Five, another high-ranking model on our best wireless speakers list. Same as with the Pulse M, that Sonos model is designed to deliver a wide soundstage and to fill the room with as much high-quality audio as possible from a reasonably compact package.

Another thing that the Pulse M and the Sonos Five share in common is a lack of onboard microphones for voice control: you can use Siri, Google, or Alexa commands to operate the Pulse M, but you’ll need to use outboard hardware – an Amazon Echo Dot speaker, for instance – to make that happen. 

The Pulse M is priced quite a bit lower than the Sonos Five ($549 / £499 / AU$799), making it a more appealing option for an all-in-one speaker, at least from a cost standpoint. But the big question remains of whether or not it provides a sufficiently beefy performance boost over the more affordable Sonos One ($219 / £199 / AU$319) to justify the price jump.

There’s only one way to find that out, and it’s a hands-on review of the Pulse M, which we hope to provide in the near future. Until that happens, check out our best wireless speaker guide to read about other options, and also our Black Friday 2022 guide, which features many other great audio and video product deals.

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Latest Gadgets News

Microsoft's has not offered any remedies to EU antitrust regulators reviewing its proposed $69 billion (nearly Rs. 5,71,400 crore) bid for Call of Duty maker Activision Blizzard ahead of an expected full-scale EU probe, a person familiar with the matter said on Monday. The US software company is betting on the acquisition to help it compete better with leaders Tenc...

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The Raspberry Robin malware is being used to deliver all kinds of destructive code, including ransomware, to compromised endpoints, Microsoft has warned.

It seems the malware, first discovered late in 2021, and whose endgame was unknown at the time, transformed into an infection service available to anyone with cash to pay. 

Cybersecurity researchers from Microsoft have published a detailed blog post in which they describe Raspberry Robin as “part of a complex and interconnected malware ecosystem”, with links to other malware families and alternate infection methods. 

Infection for hire

Whoever is behind Raspberry Robin kept busy over these last couple of weeks, as according to Microsoft Defender for Endpoint data, almost 3,000 devices in 1,000 organizations have experienced at least one Raspberry Robin payload-related alert in the last 30 days. 

Payloads differ, the company further explained, from FakeUpdates malware which led to possible EvilCorp activity, to IceID, Bumblebee, and Truebot. This is all July 2022. 

In October 2022, though, Microsoft also spotted Raspberry Robin being used by FIN11 (AKA TA505, - the group behind the Dridex banking trojan and Locky ransomware). This activity led to Cobalt Strike hands-on-keyboard compromises, the company explained, sometimes with a Truebot infection in between the Raspberry Robin and Cobalt Strike stages. Following the Cobalt Strike beacon, the group deployed the Clop ransomware. 

All things considered, Microsoft concluded that the group behind Raspberry Robin is taking payments to deploy various malware and ransomware to its victims’ endpoints.

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“Given the interconnected nature of the cybercriminal economy, it’s possible that the actors behind these Raspberry Robin-related malware campaigns—usually distributed through other means like malicious ads or email—are paying the Raspberry Robin operators for malware installs,” the report concludes.

Raspberry Robin was first identified when researchers from Red Canary discovered a “cluster of malicious activity”. The malware is usually distributed offline, via infected USB drives. After analyzing an infected thumb drive, the researchers discovered that the worm spreads to new devices via a malicious .LNK file. 

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